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The course for the Lost Soul Ultra meanders along the Old Man River pulling runners over the undulating coulees surrounding the prairie town of Lethbridge Alberta. The Lost Soul has a manageable amount of climbing (1,300m over 53km) on the main loop, but conceals numerous insults and packs quite the punch for a prairie run. It’s a challenging course and a phenomenally well run event. It easily has the best stocked aid stations and volunteers. I definitely plan on running this event again.

When I ran this race in 2013 it was my first run over five hours. After glancing at the course profile online I planned to put most of my effort in the hilly section (the first 33km) then cruise the flat section back to the finish. This was great in theory, but I had never actually seen the terrain. I had no idea what kind of surface I’d be running on, nor had I been acquainted with a coulee, or even been to Lethbridge! The easy flat return section that I had banked on, just did not exist. Instead I encountered: sand, wet slippery grass, sticky mud, bushwhacking, and tiny flying bugs everywhere. What a surprise! My poor hydration, overly enthusiastic pace, and the accumulation of the steep descents finally caught me around the marathon mark. Cramps in my inner calves started alternating between legs. My friends at the final aid stations giggled afterwards about my degrading running form in those final miles – I felt like Frankenstein and apparently I was running like him too. Most of the last 15km was spent managing cramps and on the final steep descent I awkwardly descended backwards for fear of a calf cramp locking my feet pointing downward and sending me tumbling through the cactus, down the steep bank, and into the river. I finished the race in five hours and change (first place), but was running scared those last couple miles. The finish wasn’t satisfying, it wasn’t a good race, and I realized that I had a lot to learn for these multi hour trail events.

In short, the course is more difficult than it looks. The coulees are great fun, but the descents are steep and abrupt. It was quite an insult to nearly tumble back into the river valley after a nice gradual climb, but every great course contains insults – that’s what makes them so great. The running surface of the Lost Soul ranged from narrow well worn trails, to matted paths through fields, to bushwhacking, to very small sections of road. If you’re planning to run it, then practice steep river bank descents, running on grass, and make sure you get your hydration right. Here’s my track.

I forgot what a gem Going Long: Training for Triathlon’s Ultimate Challenge by Friel, and Byrn is. While this book is targeted towards the athlete training for an Ironman distance triathlon it has a lot of overlap with long distance running material and endurance athletics in general. Here are a couple sections and ideas I liked.

Success Traits
The successful traits of an athlete are listed as: confident, focused, self-sufficient, adaptable, quietly cocky, and mentally tough. Confidence is loosely described as balancing respect for yourself and your athletic abilities. Self-sufficiency by taking full responsibility of your actions, and taking calculated risks to try to win rather than trying not to lose. Quiet cockiness because “[they] know they have what it takes physically to succeed [but the] most successful ones never brag about this … their assuredness is obvious to anyone who watches … they don’t talk about how good they are … they are afraid it would come back to haunt them.” That last trait really resonates and follows the behaviour I’ve observed in world class athletes.

Being Your Goals
The section on being your goals expands on the success traits. It’s suggested that in order to be a champion we need to eat, train, recover, behave, and become a champion. By becoming a champion we’re striving to be the best we can. In our diet it’s suggested that we: eliminate processed foods, get our energy from whole sources, limit starchy and sugary foods to during and after workouts. Champions know that “success does not imply arrogance”. There’s also mention of how “athletes have a fear of truly committing to their goals” and I can certainly relate.

In addition to these broader soft ideas there’s a lot of good technical information on training plans, workout phases, breakthrough workouts, recovery, etc… All of which share a lot of commonality with ultra marathon / marathon training plans. I’m always amazed at the time commitment these Ironman level triathlons require – 15 hours weekly to just complete one! Imagine what a runner could do with 15 hrs or running per week.

A couple thoughts on recovery from Friel, and Byrn:

Remember that there is no such thing as a ‘recovery run.’ Recovery sessions should be non-impact oriented

Your mind will try to convince you that you are different from everyone else, that you need less recovery. History has shown that almost everyone is best served by resting.

Rushing recover is a false economy. When your body needs rest, it will take the rest that it needs by any means necessary. Fatigue, illness, burnout, and injury…

If you’re wondering, Friel, and Byrn suggest recovery should take four to six weeks following a full effort race. This is definitely a book worth picking up.